Published Friday, 26 February 2010
A post-mortem examination showed that Kieran Doherty's death was consistent with gunshot injuries.
The Real IRA has said it murdered the 31-year-old former republican prisoner from the Brandywell area of the city.
The dissident group also claimed that Mr Doherty was a senior member of the republican paramilitary organisation.
The body of Mr Doherty, who had a two-year-old daughter, was found in Braehead Road, near the Irish border on Wednesday night.
Police continued to comb the area for clues on Friday.
Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness said the murder was a "dirty deed" and urged co-operation with the police.
The Catholic Church in Derry has also called on the community to support the murder investigation.
"Everybody is sickened to the very pit of their stomach at the fact that this again has been visited upon our community", Father Michael Canny from St Eugene's Cathedral told UTV.
"Everybody out there wants us to move on so that our city and our country is a better place in the future.
"These people must not be allowed to drag us back to the dark, sad days of the past."
A police spokesman said there had been a good response to appeals for information.
"We have authorised release of the body to family. Post-mortem showed death consistent with gunshot injuries," he added.
UTV understands the funeral will be held at Long Tower Catholic Church, where Mr Doherty was planning to get married in three months time.
"No one deserves that, to be stripped of his dignity and just shot down like that," Martha McClelland, from the Coshowen Residents' Association, told UTV.
"They can't even have an open casket and they can't say goodbye to him properly."
Meanwhile, SDLP council group leader Helen Quigley said that Derry City Council had decided to postpone a meeting in protest at the murder.
"The people of this city never supported similar murders by other groups in the past and they still reject this heinous deed today. It was wrong then and it is wrong now," she said.